The strike has been going on for 6 months now (just a few days short of). I have a few questions for the members: Is 6 months an unusual length of time for a strike in Panama? Are unionized workers in Panama allowed to find temporary jobs while on strike? My guess is that they are technically not allowed to do so, but that they do it anyway because it must be hard to support a family on just the union benefits during a strike. And yet the Red Frog Beach Club management is NOT allowed to hire any temporary workers - right?
Does Suntracs do more harm than good? Is it a relevant organization?
Nice blog, Mick!
3 comments:
Panama never had a six month strike. Union workers are back doing what they did before (for years). Check out Suntracs at Wikipedia to answer the question of relevance. The issue is $. When it arrives they will be back to work.
This is what it said in Wikipedia about Suntracs: " ... one of the leading trade union forces in Panama, with 40,000 members and a militant style of class war unionism. It is the leader union within Coordinadora de Unidad Sindical (CONUSI), the most radical of the major union federations in Panama.
Led by Genaro Lopez, SUNTRACS has initiated three general strikes in the past few years, and has been the instrumental force within FRENADESO, the national coalition to prevent the privatization of Panama's social security. It has been closely connected with radical leftist groups and Padre Conrado Sanjur, an important local figure in liberation theology."
Red Frog Beach mgt has their hands full! Mick, go ahead and delete this sentence if it could cause any problems, but I don't think they deserve more money! Not from some of the things I've heard about their work!
We were told that SUNTRACS is trying to negotiate into the contract that the developer would pay the union so they can get their 2% of all wages and then they will give the balance to the worker. Does anyone else find this thuggish? Although not unlike how the IRS treats W-2 employees here in the US!
Mick @ Lot 83
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